Antarctica Starts Here.

Wedding Ceremony for Lyssa and Bryce. Oct 25th 2008

Welcome
Officiate: Friends and family, tribe and loved ones, we are gathered here to celebrate love in all its forms, but especially the love that makes a commitment between two people. This kind of love is not afraid to make promises. It is not afraid to work and to struggle. It seeks not only to be but to continue. It is based not only on the pleasures of the present but on the hope of the future. Lyssa and Bryce have invited you, their loved ones, to gather to share this moment of love and joy with them today as they celebrate their commitment to each other and begin a new story in their lives, as husband and wife.

Lighting of the Unity Candle
Officiate: Each of you is a bright flame, full of potential. You both have chosen to come together, to share that light and birth a new hearth fire, bringing together all your strengths to create a home of love and support so that each of you may grow and share your light as one. Passion, warmth, creativity, and love burn within you both, as does the ability to change, adapt, and grow together. Together you light this flame as a symbol of the light you bring to one another, to keep each other warm even when things seem cold and dark.

(Bride and Groom light candle)

Vows
Officiate: It all started when Bryce, an all but broke college student at the time, baked a couple of batches of cookies and brownies to give as gifts one chilly evening in Pittsburgh shortly before Yule. Short on money but long on time, he dropped in on one friend after another to drop off batches of his confections in lieu of gifts and wish everyone well. As it turned out, the last house he visited was hosting a party at the time, and as he turned to leave they invited him to stay for a while and warm up. Busily typing on a computer in the den, Lyssa was working on a composition for later in the evening and happened to ask if anyone minded if she quoted from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

Without thinking twice, he responded, "“Sure –who says that you can’'t?”"

(By this point, Lyssa had then determined that not only was this newcomer not hard on the eyes, but he potentially shared her love of comics, books, and science fiction. She then did what any sensible woman would do—fed him spiced apple wine, chocolate, and spent the rest of the evening talking books in hopes that maybe he’d come around.)

Before going their separate ways that night, they exchanged e-mail addresses and instant messenger handles. The very next night, Bryce discovered that he had an e-mail waiting for him…

Now, six years later, the two have written vows to declare their love for one another:

Bride: Apples have, in myth and folklore, started a whole mess of trouble. Eris used one to start a war over love. And there was this woman, once, they say, who got us into trouble, just for wanting to know a few necessary things about life.  But knowledge, trust, and honest communication keep a relationship strong enough to last forever. So does love. In other stories, modern and ancient, they are faerie fruit, or from the blessed isle, and if you eat of one, you could live forever. I had a dream that I stood here today, and offered you an apple— and so, we are. My love, dare to take a bite and risk the future with me by your side. Apple of my eye, I can't promise you Eden, but wherever we go, I will always keep a home for you to rest your head. My best friend, though we may not always agree, I will always listen, for my quest is to know you as it is to know myself, so that we may build a life together where both may grow as friends and as people to be the best we can become. Beloved, fairest of them all, I can't give you forever, but I will stay with you all my days, for paradise is where you are, because I love you with all my heart. I always have, and I always will. Will you accept me and all that I am?



Groom: Secrets have traditionally been the currency of kings, of sages, seers, dreamers, and makers of wonders. They’'ve been written on crumbling scrolls, books bound in leather, folded into tiny knots of paper by school children, and conjured into tiny sparks of lightning that are nowhere and everywhere. Secrets are also sometimes shared with one’'s inner circle of friends and confidants. To learn a secret requires great courage and often peril; to tell a secret requires greater courage. Secrets are that which souls are built upon - true names, secret words, and songs which only the stones and the stars remember how to sing. I wondered if one day that there would be someone to stand by my side, take my hand, and journey with me to see what had not been seen and learn what had not been learned, and then I met you. That someone would receive a secret more precious than gold if I came to trust them, and come to trust you I did. That someone would become like a part of me; someone whose joys made me weep and whose pain bid me cry out. You are that and more than words can express. I don'’t know where we’'re going, and I don'’t know when we'’ll get there or how we’'ll get back, but I can’'t find it without you. I may forget things from time to time; I may get lost; I may even speak without thinking sometimes but I cherish you above all else and I'’ll show you the heavens, the stars, and the worlds yet unseen. We can make anything of our life together.

It is said that there are fourteen words that can make someone fall in love with you forever, and these I offer to you:  “Will you keep these passwords safe, and accept me and all that I am?”



Rings
Officiate: Take hands, both of you. And all of you who love each other in this room, please take each others’ hands as well. We all understand the gesture that you are now making. To reach out to someone and be acknowledged, held, and loved is something we all want. On these hands, you will place a ring for your beloved. These wedding rings will be a sign of the promises you have made to one another on this day and throughout your lives. These are the hands of your beloved, hands that will comfort you, give you their strength, and grow old by your side.

Officiate to Groom: Bryce, do you take Lyssa to be your wife, and promise to love, respect, and be a partner to her for all your days?

Bryce places ring on Lyssa'’s finger: “I do.”

Officiate to Bride: Lyssa, do you take Bryce to be your husband, and promise to love, respect, and be a partner to him for all your days?

Lyssa places ring on Bryce'’s finger:

I do.”

Handfasting
Officiate: Twice you have spoken your vows to one another, and with this handfasting, your promises to love one another for all your days are made threefold. Binding Hands By your will, I join the two of you together in love. May it strengthen you, support you, and be a blessing to you all your days. By your vows and professed love to one another, you are husband and wife! Rejoice! And you may finally kiss the bride!

Ending
Officiate: Through the house give gathering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.

First, rehearse your song by rote
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.